Facebook, VK, and YouTube Top the List of the World’s Best Global Websites

More than two-thirds (70%) of the world’s most prominent websites are multilingual —and the number of languages offered correlates statistically to a company’s success

(BOSTON) – Research findings from independent research firm Common Sense Advisory show a strong correlation between the number of languages found on a website and a business’s success. Whether the ranking is based on revenue, brand value, or website traffic, the best-ranked websites consistently offer a higher language count than those on the bottom. In each case, business success using a range of measures goes hand in hand with greater breadth of language support.

The research firm’s latest series of global web marketing reports are based on a sample of 2,409 websites compiled from Alexa Top 500 Global Sites, the Interbrand 100 Best Global Brands, the Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 500 lists. The research reveals that the top 50 companies from the Forbes Global 2000 list typically provide content in 15 languages, while sites from companies in the bottom 1,000 averaged only four languages. The average number of languages across all 2,409 sites was nearly six. More details are available in the following reports:

* “Global Website Assessment Index” provides detailed data from the overall sample of 2409 websites, revealing the popularity of over 100 different languages in global website communications by industry, company size, headquarters country, and more.

* “Multilingual Websites” demonstrates how the number of languages found on a website corresponds to the success of the company or website, and how the number of languages found on prominent sites in any industry or country accurately predicts success in the global economy.

* “Top 100 Global Websites” reveals the top 100 global websites based on best practices for global website design, including language availability, navigation, and global social engagement.

“More companies are learning that if they want to achieve higher levels of international revenue, their web presence must be global and multilingual. Monolingual websites fail to reach even a quarter of the world’s internet users in their preferred language. It takes 12 languages to reach 80% of the world’s online audience and 21 to reach 90%,” explains Ben Sargent, senior analyst at Common Sense Advisory.

The series of reports includes critical data useful to global businesses and the language companies serving them, including:

* Which languages are most popular online – and by industry. The “Global Website Assessment Index” report shows the results of language popularity by company size, sector, home country, and website traffic volume. It shows which languages are found at the top of the economic food chain overall and within specific industry sectors.

* Which websites offer the best global experience. In its most recent “Top 100 Global Websites” ranking, the firm places Facebook, VK, and YouTube at the top of the list. The firm evaluates sites using 20 scoring areas, including the total addressable audience the site can reach and the spending power of the linguistic communities it supports. Sites that make it difficult for global audiences to quickly find relevant content are penalized with point deductions.

* Which industries require the most languages. Software tops the list of industry sub-sectors sorted by highest average number of languages per website. The company and brand sites examined in each of the following industries averaged 10 or more languages: Software, Life Sciences, High Technology, Manufacturing Services, and Automotive.

“Companies should not make the mistake of thinking that simply adding more languages will necessarily result in a better score. It takes a combination of quantity and quality to create the best possible web experience for users that may speak any language and come from anywhere in the world,” adds Sargent.

For additional information about Common Sense Advisory’s research, visit www.commonsenseadvisory.com. Members of the media may request complimentary copies of the reports by contacting Melissa Gillespie at Melissa@commonsenseadvisory.com.

About Common Sense Advisory
Common Sense Advisory, Inc. is an independent research and analysis firm specializing in the on- and offline operations driving business globalization, internationalization, localization, translation, and interpretation. Its research, consulting, and training help organizations improve the quality of their global business operations. For more information, visit: www.commonsenseadvisory.com or www.twitter.com/CSA_Research.

About Common Sense Advisory

Translation and Localization Industry Pricing Survey Reveals While Demand is Up, Prices are Down

Industry pricing report, based on Common Sense Advisory’s survey of 651 language service providers, details cost of services across 156 language pairs.

Boston, MA – August 13, 2010 -- Translation underpins successful business globalization. While technology, business practices, regulatory compliance, and marketing issues support the international or domestic multicultural outreach of any organization, words always convey information about what an organization does, sells, or offers. And, according to new research by Common Sense Advisory, these words are getting cheaper. The net result of global supply, advances in technology, economic troubles, and more aggressive buyers has conspired to drive down the prices of most major and up-and-coming language pairs since the firm last collected data on pricing in late 2007.

Common Sense Advisory based these findings on a detailed global survey of 651 language service providers (translation firms) and freelancers in 75 countries about their pricing structures, processes, and customer bases. The firm’s report, entitled, “Translation and Localization Pricing,” includes pricing data in average prices for 156 language pairs. Further, it includes the major 10 languages with the greatest global economic impact (French, Spanish, Chinese, et. al), as well as 23 “next-wave languages” used in rapidly developing markets or in countries that are important to the global supply chain (for example, Arabic and languages of India).

How services are priced:
Most respondents (72.5%) base their pricing on the source content that they receive versus just 13% who charge by the words that they generate. The balance of respondents said other factors contributed to the structure including the client and complexity of the job. Invoices may include extra-cost fees including: terminology research, project management, testing, quality control checks, preparation of final materials, and more.

Adds report lead analyst and Chief Research Officer Don DePalma, “Whether you’re buying translation or comparing your prices with those of a competitor, you should ask for the fully loaded cost. This will vary by geography. For example, European LSPs and smaller firms elsewhere tend to bundle services in their pricing, while larger American companies are more likely to break them out in their proposals.”

Key survey findings include:
Demand is up, but price is down. While demand for language services has continued to grow (at a rate of over 13% per year), for the most part the price of translation and localization services has dropped. Few language pairs were spared substantial price decreases since 2007 – only French and German emerged as relatively safe havens for pricing stability. Among the world’s top 10 languages, English into Russian showed the most price compression over that period.

Automation benefits buyers. Businesses can obtain substantial cost savings by working with translation providers that partially automate the translation process. The research found that most providers discount the per word price by as much as 48% when using translation memory to process previously translated text. Machine translation with human post-editing generates even larger savings.

Less than half give discounts. Price anxiety remains a big concern among suppliers. Forty-two percent of the respondents give some type of discount, based on customer loyalty, frequency, or volume. Respondents overwhelmingly stated that they face price pressure and client sensitivity driven by competition from large LSPs and low-cost (and sometimes unqualified) translators both in their home markets and abroad.

Common Sense Advisory regularly helps companies with revenue growth and cost reduction in a global business environment; advising them on local best practices, including translation and localization services.

“With some 23,000 vendors across the globe offering translation services, buyers of language services want to know how and where to get the best value and what charges should be included,” said Tahar Bouhafs, the company’s Chief Executive Officer. “Suppliers want to find out whether their prices are competitive against a nearly unlimited number of mostly unknown rivals. That’s what this industry research report explains.”

For more on the firm’s research, visit www.commonsenseadvisory.com.

About Common Sense Advisory
Common Sense Advisory, Inc. is an independent research and analysis firm specializing in the on- and offline operations driving business globalization, internationalization, localization, translation, and interpretation. Its research, consulting, and training help organizations improve the quality of their global business operations. For more information, visit: www.commonsenseadvisory.com or www.twitter.com/CSA_Research.